This is My Story… D Fevig, August 15, 2021April 14, 2024 I grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s in Kalamazoo, Michigan with Mom, Dad, and six boys. I was boy #2. We had a great childhood, in a neighborhood where we played and explored. We attended a Lutheran church every Sunday and had family devotions regularly. It was a household filled with love, acceptance, and parents who exemplified how to live life. Then the 1960s came along. The Prodigal (Lost) Son I often compare my story to the Prodigal, or Lost Son parable from Luke 15. I had a beautiful inheritance, a great childhood. Unfortunately, I succumbed to the lure of the changing culture of unrestrained sex, drugs, and the party lifestyle. Like the prodigal son, I squandered my inheritance (spiritually speaking) on loose living. I lived this way from high school graduation in 1969 until a couple years after graduating from Western Michigan University in 1974 with a teaching degree. During this period, my parents experienced a deeper walk with God, and they reached out to me at that time. I wasn’t ready to move toward the Lord then, but seeds were planted. In 1975, I was living in Portland, Oregon where God began stirring some things in me. The prodigal son was in a very low place when he finally “came to his senses”, and I was too. I found my lifestyle becoming increasingly unproductive, aimless, destructive, and depressing. First Steps Toward the Lord Although I didn’t acknowledge the Lord at the time, I believe He gave me the desire to serve, specifically to apply for the Peace Corps. My hope was to use my teaching degree to work in some exotic place like a Pacific Island paradise. I had done my student teaching at an American school in Mallorca, Spain in the Mediterranean Sea, so I was a little spoiled. My motive? I could serve, and I hoped, party at the same time! I was accepted into the Peace Corps, so I packed my few belongings and returned to my parents’ home in Michigan to wait for my assignment. That was around Christmas in 1975. In early 1976, the Lord began to move strongly in my life. First, my brother Bob sent me a letter. He had been living with me in Portland for part of that previous year. He related that he had become a Christian there, and was now living a completely new life. Also around that time, I started reading a Living Bible New Testament. It was refreshingly different from the Bible I grew up with and made the Scriptures come alive for me. Jesus, his words and life, captivated me. The more I read, the more I was drawn to Him and away from my previous life. I also read many Christian books. Home! One night, I had just finished reading David Wilkerson’s The Cross and the Switchblade, (which chronicles his ministry to New York gangs in the 1950s and 60s). On my bed, just me and the Lord, I poured out my heart to him with many tears. I repented of my past, and essentially traded my old life for the new one I had been tasting over the past few months. The Father embraced me with open arms that night, just like he embraced the prodigal son! I felt loved, accepted, and forgiven. He radically transformed me! I had some setbacks however. The most significant one was on a trip I took to Portland in the spring of 1976 to see my brother Bob. I thought that I might live there again. On my way, I stopped to see a friend in California, who I had met in Mallorca. One night, he offered me marijana, and I smoked it. I remember then thinking “what am I doing?” Then the miracle: it didn’t affect me at all! No high, no “munchies”, no anything. After I asked myself that question, I felt the Lord say (not audibly, just an impression) “you don’t need that anymore. I’m your ‘high’ now!” I never used any drug after that. After a short time with Bob, reading the Bible from cover to cover while he went to work, I decided to go back to Michigan. By this time, I had decided not to pursue the Peace Corps, but I felt that God had something for me back home. Bob ended up returning to Michigan later that year as well. Marriage and Family So I was established in the faith, attending the same church we had attended when I was growing up. In that year, 1976, I met Kathy Michaud, who became my best friend, and my wife in 1977. We both journeyed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the fall of 1976 to enroll in the Lay Ministry program of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). Our friendship grew into more, we married in April 1977, and moved to Indiana were we directed the LCMS campus ministry at Indiana State University and Rose Hulman University. I feel like the Lord gave me a teaching gift, discipling many young college students from all over the country. Several of those students ended up going into full-time ministry. We were blessed with two children, one natural born, and the second adopted from the Philippines. It was a challenge, and also a joy to raise them. Career and Ministry I worked in higher education for 43 years. After three years of campus ministry, and completing a Master of Science degree in higher education, I took a position in financial aid administration at Marquette University. Later, I worked at Central Michigan University, and then Valparaiso University, in Valparaiso, IN where we moved in 1993. At Valpo, I also dabbled in Information Technology management, and migrated to admission. My Vice President promoted me to Assistant VP for Enrollment Management overseeing admission and financial aid in 2012. I retired in July 2020, and we moved to Pennsylvania near our daughter’s family (grandkids!). Over the years, the Lord gave me the opportunity to teach and preach in several churches, home groups, and in a jail ministry. He gave me a love for his Word, and the desire and ability to share it with others. After my retirement, we moved to Pennsylvania to be close to our daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren. A friend of mine, reflecting on growing older, observed that we lose so many people over the years. Parents, friends, sometimes even children. We also lose physical abilities, sports we used to participate in, the strengths of our youth. sometimes our health. But as we go along, “everything narrows down to Jesus”. It’s like we are living life in a tunnel, very wide at first, but then Jesus is all there is at the end. What a beautiful way to look at this life. The Lord has been very faithful to us in every way. I expect he will continue to be faithful during the latter years of my time on this earth. As I travel through the “tunnel” of life, my desire is to grow more and more into him, and to be used by him to bring others into his kingdom. About
About Why I Started: My Inspiration August 25, 2021April 2, 2024 The Bereans in Acts 17:11 are my inspiration for this blog. These Jewish seekers heard Paul preach and searched the scriptures to confirm what he was saying. I have looked at many traditional teachings of our time and questioned them. As a result of my searching the Scriptures, I have… Read More